Euronext announced its results for the first quarter of 2016. Third party quarterly revenue slightly decreased by -2.7% to €126.5 million (Q1 2015: €130.0 million).
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That was mainly driven by lower volumes on cash trading business, and a pause in the IPO market resulting from uncertain macroeconomic conditions in the first quarter of the year.
Operational expenses excluding Depreciation & Amortization decreased by 12.1% to €54.7 million (Q1 2015: €62.2 million), thanks to the benefits of the costs restructuring efforts implemented throughout 2015.
However Q1’2016 cost base does not fully reflect the actual run-rate of the group as the quarter was positively impacted by some non-recurring items in the compensation and benefits line (about €3 million).
The ongoing robust cost discipline has enabled the EBITDA margin to strongly improve in Q1 2016, to 56.8% (Q1 2015: 52.2%).
Depreciation and Amortization decreased by -18%, amounting to €3.7 million (Q1 2015: €4.6 million), mainly due to the accelerated depreciation of assets in Q1’2015 in anticipation of the relocation of our premises in Paris and Brussels.
Quarterly operating profit before exceptional items was €68.0 million; a 7.6% increase compared to last year (€63.3 million).
Exceptional expenses in Q1 2016 have shown a credit of +€0.6 million due to a partial release of the provision for the French restructuring plans to align the provision with the execution of the departure plan (Q1 2015: +€6.3 million).
Euronext income tax for Q1 2016 amounted to €21.6 million, representing a tax rate of 31%, in line with the Group’s normalized tax rate (Q1 2015: tax rate of 28.7%, which was positively impacted, amongst other discrete items, by the release of a provision created in 2014 in connection with the Cannon Bridge House lease).
The net profit for the first quarter of 2016 amounted to €48.0 million (same as in Q1 2015), representing an EPS of €0.69 (both basic and diluted) in Q1 2016, compared to €0.69 (basic) and €0.68 (diluted) in Q1 2015.
As of March 31, 2016 Euronext had cash and cash equivalents excluding financial investments of €202.8 million, and total debt of €108.5 million. ■